All posts filed under: reviews

Originally posted on Reverse Retrograde: The Pertinents 117 N Main St A, Brighton, CO 80601, USA Founded in 2012 The Space It’s a big bar with a lot of space, and it feels very modern for the quaintness of downtown Brighton. I liked the ‘porch’ on the front of the place, so that you could sit outside and enjoy the amazing skies Eastern Colorado offers. They have long opening hours and a breathalyzer in the back, just in case. It’s clear that they’ve done a great job bringing in a slightly different crowd from your average hipstery brewpub, and that they work in the community to foster ties as Brighton grows and changes. Every night of the week has a different theme, from flip night to Cards Against Humanity. The Beer Overall, good. Not awesome, but good. They have created a line of tea-infused beer that is interesting and fresh-tasting, and vanilla seems to play a big role (at least in the beers we tried). The smooth Charon’s Obol is a yummy Irish Red Ale. I…

Originally posted on The Flower That Blooms: A few months ago we set ourselves the challenge of finding some more cruelty free beauty brands online. We love looking around to find independent and small brands and as we’ve previously mentioned, Twitter is great for doing so. AA Skincare are a brand that we’ve been following for a while on Twitter but never got round to looking at properly. To cut a long story short, we eventually got into contact with AA and they kindly sent us two shampoo bars of our choice! We’ve always been fans of the ever so popular Lush shampoo bars and couldn’t wait to see how these ones compared. AA Skincare are a brand developed by Amphora Aromatics, a brand who have been one of the biggest suppliers of pure essential oils and aromatherapy products for over 30 years. Their products are created using all natural ingredients and essentials oils, including Aloe, Frankincense, Lavender and Neroli, making their products perfect for your skin. They cater for all different skin types, so whether…

Originally posted on Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys): The Dressmaker Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse Based on the novel by Rosalie Ham Starring Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving Review by Jordan The Dressmaker is Shakespeare told via the dusty outcrops of rural ‘50’s Australia. When the well-travelled (nay, exiled) Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet) returns home to the insular outback town of Dungatar, she brings with her not only haute couture and the ability to entrance footballers like the song of the siren, but also the intent of a femme fatale, whose desire to uncover the mysteries of her tragic past is weighed down by her little-explored but obviously troubling (and bleakly amusing) childhood curse. Tilly’s relationship with her reclusive, alcoholic mother Molly (Judy Davis in an excellent performance) bears the scars of intimate lies and an innate desire to rectify them, and reluctant connection to rugged local Teddy (Hemsworth) shows a capacity to escape her emotional confides if only her aura of bad luck could be broken. Macbeth, then, is the most…

Originally posted on mailbox mermaid: What incredible luck I’ve had with “seconds” pins of late! My?newly beloved mousemoth pin?(about which I apparently cannot stop talking) is practically perfect in every way, even though I bought it at a wonderful discount, and, in a similar vein, I am nothing but impressed by this seconds-sale enamel pin with a courageous theme from The Clever Clove on Etsy. (Watch me refer to it not-so-sneakily in every one of?next?week’s updates!) As I’ve alluded in previous posts (to put it lightly), exactly a week ago I faced a surgical fear that has haunted me for?nearly a decade. I know that wisdom teeth extractions are pretty commonplace here in the states, but as someone with incredible needle anxiety, I have dreaded this day since I first turned sixteen and learned that I did indeed have a quartet of those unwanted beasts. I had to get it done–and I was remarkably brave in the days leading up to it!–so when I randomly stumbled upon* this beautifully designed pin quoting my favorite?inspirational lion,…

Originally posted on All My Life… I Wanted To Be A Blogster: The small sub genre of female driven superhero movies has unfortunately been a bit of a cinematic litter box with forgettable fare like Supergirl, Catwoman, and Elektra. That changes with Wonder Woman from director Patty Jenkins. It is not only by far the most satisfying comic book adaptation headlined by a woman, it’s the most entertaining DC pic since Christopher Nolan was handling the Batman franchise. We first saw Gal Gadot’s title character in last year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as a sidekick to those two iconic titans. While it deservedly earned its reputation as a mess, it was also a mess worth watching and Wonder Woman was a bright spot in it. Now we get her origin story. We begin in present day with Diana Prince collaborating with Bruce Wayne. The Caped Crusader’s research has uncovered a photograph of the ageless Wonder from the World War I era (which we first saw in BvS). This causes Diana’s memory to travel…

Originally posted on LITERARY TITAN: There are many words that can be used to describe the tale of Swallow by Heidi Fischer. Gripping. Moving. Heart-breaking. This fantastic story about a young woman in World War Two era Germany humanizes those who fought in the war in a way that is unexpected. Our story follows Gabi: a fierce, bright woman who stampedes her way onto the runway where she acts as an engineer and pilot. In a time where woman were beginning to make their mark on the world; a time when relations are strained and many outside the Nazi mantra failed to truly understand what was happening in their country. Gabi finds herself in all of this. The bright young woman who had her life altered so horrifically at the tender age of seven. The young woman who wants to do her father, a general, proud. Gabi shows us a Germany that many of us wouldn’t have believed existed. The desire of a young woman to fly. This book starts off with a bang and…

Originally posted on Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys): Title – War Machine (2017) Director – David Michôd (The Rover) Cast – Brad Pitt, Anthony Michael Hall, Anthony Hayes, John Magaro, Emory Cohen, Will Poulter, Topher Grace, Sir Ben Kingsley, Meg Tilly, Scott McNairy Plot – Sent to the Middle East to win the hearts and minds of the locals and get them to support the foreign troops they’re harbouring in their lands, US Army Gen. Glen McMahon (Pitt) and his entourage quickly realise that they are facing an uphill battle to win the war on terror when away from the battlefield. “What do you do when the war you’re fighting just can’t possibly be won in any meaningful sense?” Review by Eddie on 02/06/2017 A world conquering streaming provider putting up $60 million dollars of hard earned cash. A beloved A-lister headlining the film and promotion of it and an Australian director who delivered one of the countries all-time great films in the form of Animal Kingdom. On paper Netflix’s War Machine seems like a…

Originally posted on The Collective Blog: ? Edited by The Collected Mutineer ***A spoiler free review*** Chewing Gum Review: “Bless Us One and All, Oh Great and Benevolent Queen Bey” This six-episode comedy premiered in the UK on television last year, but Netflix acquired the rights to broadcast as an exclusive in other countries, and boy, am I glad. The cheeky humor, diverse cast and realistic portrayal of sex, religion and relationships (familial and otherwise) in Chewing Gum make it a sleeper hit of the season. During American Thanksgiving, I sat down with my Netflix account determined to watch something that wasn’t a Russian documentary or hockey related, and settled on Chewing Gum. Set in the U.K. housing complex (Tower Estates), the main character, Tracy, is touted as a Beyonce-obsessed shop girl looking to get laid, which, let’s be honest, is right up my alley. Still, the show is about more than blessed Queen Bey; there are issues of class, race, sexuality and religion that make each 22 minute episode stark and laugh-out-loud funny. Led by Michaela Coel, writer and creator of the original play…

Originally posted on Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys): Mitsuha wakes to find herself crying Your Name (Kimi no na wa) Written and directed by Makoto Shinkai (5 Centimetres Per Second) Voice acting by Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi Review by Jordan “Once in a while when I wake up. I find myself crying.” If movie magic is the transformative ability to create a world other than this one, filled with life and beauty to capture the imagination in ways only dreams could create, then Your Name is the most magical movie of all time. Emotionally satisfying, as it surveys the landscape of love and longing by way of teen romance, comedy and celestial drama before scaling the heights of fate, Makoto Shinkai’s latest film uses its delicately drawn characters to introduce us to strangers who switch places in their sleep, setting rules for what they’re able to do and keeping a diary of the day they’ve steered. Mitsuha lives with her younger sister and grandma at a temple in the rural town of Itomori, weighed down by the expectations of being…

It didn’t take me too long to finish reading this strange and whimsical book here but while reading it, it did feel like it took me forever. I’m not sure if it was a psychological issue, since the title itself is all about time. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by bestselling author, Salman Rushdie, is about the unique relationship between a female jinn, Dunia, and a human male, a philosopher by the name of Ibn Rushd, which spanned centuries, and the brood they created came into existence with a special soul. They were as normal as you and me, holding down a job, gardening, owning a home and driving a car. They were as normal as the other human beings in the story. The only difference was their inner possession of a super power and the levitation that caused an uproar among their own kind. The book wasn’t all about Dunia and Ibn Rushd, though. It was also about the rest of the jinns and jinnias in the fairy world. I was amazed that my …